Documentary Analysis 2

Africa's Last Taboo

Documentary Analysis 1

Saving Africa's Witch Children

The documentary which I will be analysing is the channel 4 dispatches documentary called "Saving Africa's Witch Children" This Documentary was first broadcasted two years ago on the 12th of November 2008 on channel 4. I will be analysing 5 minutes of the clip talking about the themes in which they explored and the elements which documentary like these contain. Also I will be exploring the technical aspects such as mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound.

The main point of this documentary is to inform the the audience of the disturbing but true to life stories in Akwa Iborn, Nigeria. It tells the story of children being labelled witches and wizards by their family and communities thus these children are abandoned, tortured, or killed. A bishop even claiming to killing over 100 alleged witches and wizards. This is what is called an informative documentary with facts and figures informing the viewer, example "60 million christians in Nigeria..." The documentary starts with a ariel birds eye view of the state of Akwa Iborn, showing it as a rural setting.

This sets the scene for the audience and tells us where its set. It used very early on in the documentary and is first five shots you see. The editor clearly annotated the location of the shot in clear visible lettering in bottom left of the screen. The narrator is a clear female british speaker easy to understand in which straight away she starts to inform the audience of what's going on.

This is the title screen which presents the documentary. It Clearly says the production name which is called "Dispatches" and underneath that, the name the actual documentary. the colour is plain and simple, white font on a grey background making it easy for the eye to read. Below we see a number of children's faces. I think the effect that they are trying to create is to say that they are innocent and harmless as the director uses a high angle shot looking down upon themIt may also be creating the feeling of just how many children are accused of being witches and wizards. The frame is filled with young African children looking up.

We are introduced to some of the speakers early on in the documentary. The first speaker which we are introduced to is a Bishop with strong views on the subject. Through out the documentary, suggestions are made that the problem is caused by both African traditional beliefs and extreme christian pentecostal groups.

In this shot we see the bishop from a low angle, as the audience we are looking up at him. This shows his authoritative figure as he is preforming one his rituals on an accused witch child. This shot puts us in the scene and in the place of the child, we are made to feel in the child's position looking the man. The connotation of the his costume can be religious as the colour white is associated with purity and christianity. Overall the documentary was interesting and it opened your eyes to what is going on in third world countries such as these.

Newspaper Advertisement 1st Draft

This is my newspaper advertisement which is my first draft. Since my documentary is about university I though it would be suitable to use an image of graduate students. Also as my first draft I used this image of the internet which I searched in google images. For my final draft of my poster I would draw it by hand or take a digital picture. This picture represent the diversity of students and it says that students come from all walks of life men, women, black, white etc. I have featured the Havering College Of Further Education production logo in the top right. The font which i have used is called "Stencil" which I think is a good font as it is simple to read, also the colour I have used makes it stand out even more on the background. The contrast of the colour is visible making it easy to read from a far.